Upset of the Week: Wisconsin Outlasts Texas

Upset of the Week: Wisconsin Outlasts Texas

Things looked bleak for the Wisconsin Badgers midway through their match against Texas in Austin on Sunday.

Sep 19, 2016 by Megan Kaplon
Upset of the Week: Wisconsin Outlasts Texas
Things looked bleak for the Wisconsin Badgers midway through their match against Texas in Austin on Sunday. The Longhorns held a 2-0 set advantage and a 9-5 lead in the third.

But in set three, the pieces slowly started coming together for the Badgers. They crept back slowly, tied the set at 23-all and then secured the 25-23 victory with a kill from outside hitter Kelli Bates.

"We play really well when everybody's playing well together," Wisconsin head coach Kelly Sheffield said in an interview a day before the match. "We're a team that, if you've got one or two people that are mentally out on a beach drinking a margarita, we're going to struggle."



Those words proved to be all too true. As soon as each player took care of her individual performance, Wisconsin started to gain momentum, despite the enthusiastic crowd that filled Gregory Gymnasium. In the fourth set, Wisconsin lead from 9-8 all the way to the 25-16 final score.

Texas was the first to reach match point in set five, however, holding a 14-11 lead. Freshman outside hitter Micaya White missed her serve, then Wisconsin freshman Molly Haggerty collected an ace to bring the score to 14-13. A Texas timeout did little to stall the Badgers, as middle Haleigh Nelson and opposite Romana Kriskova stuffed Paulina Prieto-Cerame for 14-all.



The two teams traded kills to reach 15-all, then Prieto-Cerame hit out. Micaya White collected a kill for Texas, and a hitting error by Bates gave Texas its fifth match point. Wisconsin setter Lauren Carlini went back to Bates for a kill to stay alive. An attack error by Texas opposite Ebony Nwanebu, followed by a kill and another attack error, gave Wisconsin its second match point, and the Badgers did not let the chance slip away. A block by Tionna Williams and Carlini sealed the match for Wisconsin, 20-18.

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